is it ok to prune cherry blossom tree this time of year ?

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Hello (particularly to Foinavon) - I'm late to the party this year.

Re the Japanese Cherries (Prunus) - Do not prune unless absolutely essential or early in the trees life - they resent it. Just take out dead, damaged or crossing wood.   If you need to prune it hard, the tree is in the wrong place.

Anyone pruning apples at the mo?  Discuss!!

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Hi Foinavon - all my trees are on MM106 Rootstock which I think is the second biggest (about 15ft at maturity).  We had quite a good crop last year but I was still formation pruning as opposed to fruit pruning. The trees are just coming up to four years old. These year is the first year of just fruit pruning - mainly spur pruning, but I have a few tip bearers which need different treatment.  We had a bit of  deer damage but I have just had the whole orchard deer fenced (ouch!!!) so things should now be better. No rabbit damage as I have a ferret man and the whole orchard is rabbit fenced anyway.  The fenced area also contains my veg garden which is eight raised beds each 3.5m long by 1.5m wide. One bed is all Rhubarb (three varieties), one is all Asparagus, and one is reserved for Sweet Peas. The rest are rotational with the usual vegetable suspects. Might have another go at Florence Fennel this year.  Remember my previous failure?

I pulled some carrots from a small pot tonight which I thought were just weeds/ dead growth as I cleared some of my stuff. Just shows you can grow all year round.

I put my pepper seeds in pots on a windowsill on the 8th of Feb. Today i have the first lot poking through, the hot variety called Razzamatazz

Why not just use the seeds from a pepper you do like?

two reds - Robinta and Rudolf - for a try here this season Foinavon

All ordered flower and veg seeds plus Pentlanfd Javelin potatoes received  today.
Appropriate Indoor  seed planting starts tomorrow.

Eat it, it's good for you.

Update on my Sweet Pea seeds ( Sir Henry Cecil ).

I put several seeds around the outer edge of 6" pots on Tuesday the 31st of January and put them in the polytunnel. Today ( 27th of Feb ) there are quite a few poking through

I've never grown peas or beans in containers but here are my thoughts.
Peas can be planted an inch apart in open ground but if overcrowded become susceptible to mildew.
You will need good air circulation so my suggestion if 3 rows of 10 per container.
If you grow a tall variety like Alderman, you will get more pods over a longer harvest period.

Broad beans are normally spaced 9 inches in blocks. You need to space them closer in your containers and I would suggest you try 9 (3 rows of 3) to each container.

Ensure that the containers have very good drainage and water regularly, never let them dry out.
You will need to feed them with a liquid feed to have a decent yield.

Pepper seeds ... toothpicks in each pot, polythene bag resting on the toothpicks, layer of paper over the polythene to keep the direct light off until they poke through.

Then keep each pot open and watered on the windowsill. If you're planning to grow them in an unheated greenhouse, as I do, don't transplant them and stick them in the greenhouse until overnight temps are over 10C.

If you do stick them in the greenhouse too early, cover them with fleeces or newspaper if cold nights are forecast..

My local nursery does some great Tomato, Pepper, Cucumber, Chili plants that are well looked after at a cheap enough price (70p each). Much better than growing from seed. It also means you can buy several different varieties for not much more than a packet of seeds. No need to buy until the middle of April.

Thanks for that Foinavan, I've asked on another forum and was told 3 broadbean seeds per pot. This was a figure I was thinking of but I may try one with 2, 3, 4 and 6 and see what works best. Peas I think I can put in 9. The pots are 1ftx1ftx1ft but they taper in towards the bottom.

Thought this was of use, a personalised veg planner: http://gardenfocused.co.uk/calendar-veg-personalised.php

And also of use to me was square foot garden plans: https://www.quickcrop.co.uk/learning/video/square-foot-gardening

Luckily I've bought the right variety of Broad Bean "The Sutton", they are a bush variety and are recommended for containers. I plan on filling all 4 pots with these and 4 pots each of Peas, French Bean, Runner Bean and Mange Tout. I think this will give me more than enough to keep me going. Water is a big issue, we don't have an outside tap so I've been reading up on drip watering systems made with empty pop bottles.

Trilby22: Still plenty of time to plant pepper seeds. With our climate they don't really start maturing until early summer. Some years I've had seedlings 2 or 3" high stuck in yoghurt pots on the window sill well into May owing to the lack of spring warmth. But once they're transplanted into pots and placed in a sunny greenhouse, they soon make up for lost time.

Same with any plants in my experience, whether outdoors or in unheated greenhouses. There's little to gain by trying to start too early. If there's not enough daylight or heat, then you might as well be patient and wait for the right conditions. Most crops rapidly make up for lost time, and you're no worse off.

I have a simple rule for outdoor crops. Don't plant anything until the weeds are thriving.

By the way, Trilby. Don't ditch the peppers you've already sown. Keep your polythene over them, and add a sheet of newspaper on top to keep out the light, and as long as you keep the pots moist, almost certainly, just when you've given up, you'll see tiny, yellowish stems curling out of the compost one morning.

If you do sow some more, try mixing a generous amount of perlite or vermiculite into the compost. They're both ridiculously pricey for what they are (abundant, naturally occurring minerals). But by absorbing so much water, and releasing it if the compost dries out, it becomes virtually impossible to overwater or underwater the seedlings. Quite important for peppers, because they do need moisture, being tropical plants (hence the need for the polythene to reproduce their native, humid atmosphere). But conversely they don't enjoy waterlogged soil (which obviously tropical warmth prevents).

Broccoli, Spinach ,tomatoes ,carrots ,parsnips ,too cold to put seeds in yet .

Foinavon - Any bare-chested maidens going spare up your way?  My Grandad used to say "When weeds start growing, seeds want sowing".  Not bad advice but I always lag a week or two.

No veg sown here yet, my forced Rhubarb (Timperley Early) is doing well, just top dressed my new Asparagus bed (B,F&B) and my Pots are chitting nicely - First Early = Lady Cristl and Second Early = Marfona.  Havn't even ordered/bought a main crop variety yet! ANY RECOMMENDATIONS ANYONE.

Will be growing three varieties of Carrot, Beetroot (Boltardy), Parsnip (White Gem), Courgette (Soleil), Two Runner Bean varieties (Enorma to eat and Benchmaster to eat/show, plus French Beans (Climbing and bush - not purchased yet! usually grow Blue Lake Climbing but germination was awful and I see my usual supplier is not stocking it this year.

Still need to get Cucumber seeds for the Greenhouse.  Zeina preferred it I can get them.

Good luck all.  Lovely day here in sunny Sussex; typical after a wet. cold, dismal, losing day at Plumpton yesterday. Off to the Albion tonight, biggest game of the season!!